Responses to comments from a conservative reader (Part 2 or 2)

For those of you who do not follow the Civil Religion Blog where I post on Islam, some of the comments from a very conservative reader warranted lengthy responses from me. I will post the comments and my response here (split as 2 postings). If you like to make a comment, please put it on the PD site for everyone's benefit.

Interesting response. First, if Islam is supposed to be so aiding to the poor, then could you please explain why God gave the Middle East most of the world’s oil? These so-called Muslim sheiks then should be sharing their wealth with the less fortunate, such as all those poor Muslims in Africa that have to risk their lives getting to European countries because they are starving. Why don’t those rich oil sheiks help those in Algiers and Somalia etc. rather than building themselves more castles, such as Saddam even, and all their worldly goods. What you say and what I see are not the same things. Second, so Republicans support pre-emptive war as a policy? Really? Have you heard of Vietnam or Bosnia, Kosovo, or WWI (Pres. Wilson). My don’t you have a selective memory.
If I recall, Pres. Bush went to war in the Middle East because the US was attacked on 9-11 by Muslims. Remember that event? And lastly on this point of attacking Republicans, could you please tell me why every murderous conflict going on in this world is Muslims killing Christians and others? Bottom line, why are Muslims killing people all over the world if it is a religion of peace? I don’t see any other religion with this problem of terrorizing the world.

Comment by A CENTRIST -- April 19th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

Here is my response:

Thanks for describing my answer as ‘interesting’.

- You asked why rich Muslim oil sheiks do not give enough to poor Muslims and Africans IF Islam - supposedly, as you put it - promotes social justice.
My cynical response was going to be: may be because they save money to buy billions of dollars worth of planes and ammunition from our weapons manufacturers as Bush asked them to during his last visit to our friends in the Gulf (remember that one?).
Or I could say: I will tell you if you tell me why Catholic priests sexually abuse children, or why the pious catholic Eric Rudolph committed his horrible terrorist acts, or why Timothy McVeigh did what his did on Oklahoma. Hope you get my point now.
And when it comes to money, the tremendous wealth of the Catholic Church and the Vatican is beyond dispute. Why the fancy churches, gold and artwork when money is needed for the poor children of God everywhere? The verses on rich people in the New Testament are obvious to everyone. Why aren’t most Christians taking the vow of poverty?
My TRUE answer is not the cynical one. It is this: may be because you and I do not know how much money they give that is not made public, or more likely, .may be because they are not very good Muslims, that are selfish, and want to rul otherse and get rich, but not obey the word of God.
You seem to deny that Republicans have pre-emptive war as a policy. I suggest looking into what has been called Bush Doctrine, and the latest changes in our Nuclear Stance policy regarding first use of nuclear weapons.
You provided a list of wars that you called pre-emptive (Vietnam, Kosovo and WWI) and blamed it on Democrats. Many will dispute the ‘pre-emptive’ nature of at least some of the wars you listed, but I was talking about the current policies, not those of past administrations. I was not talking about past political trends in Muslim community, but the one that is relevant now.
You state “Bush went to war in the Middle East because the US was attacked on 9-11 by Muslims”. I can only say, you are wrong. We went to war in Afghanistan because the Taliban helped few thousands Muslim extremist establish a base (Al-Qaeda) there. The Iraq war had nothing to do with 9-11. Most Americans and even many Republicans accept that now
You generalization that “Muslims” attacked US on 9-11 will not get an answer from me. It just goes to show how pre-judging clouds the perception of even simple facts.
You followed with the horrible statement (emphasis mine) ”… could you please tell me why every murderous conflict going on in this world is Muslims killing Christians and others? Bottom line, why are Muslims killing people all over the world if it is a religion of peace? I don’t see any other religion with this problem of terrorizing the world”.
Statements like these are not only hateful but lack any knowledge content. You have the right to make them but I would not waste energy responding to them.
I will leave it up to others to respond to that it they feel like it.

Comment by Khaled Hamid -- April 20th, 2008 at 5:18 pm